Republic Day 2013: India's New Political Leadership

India's main opposition party-BJP gave its reins to the party veteran Rajnath Singh, clearly avoiding controversy of re-anointing the corruption tainted Nitin Gadkari. This will be Mr Singh's second stint as party chief. He previously held the post from 2005 to 2009 when RSS pushed ahead Gadkari. Even Rajnath Singh is a RSS veteran and his plus points include good relations with the big wigs at BJP as well as RSS.

All speculations regarding the future of Rahul Gandhi's political career were laid to rest when he was appointed the Vice President of the Indian National Congress earlier this week, formally giving him the position of No.2 in the party, right after his mother Sonia Gandhi. Seen as reluctant politician by many pundits, with doubtful credentials to claim leadership, Rahul Gandhi seems to have accepted his destiny and showed the same with a rousing speech at the Chintan Shivir. And it made it official, it will be a Rahul vs Modi showdown in 2014.

The Thackeray scion is all set to formally take charge of Shiv Sena nearly two months after the death of Bala Saheb Thackeray. The party’s national executive will meet to anoint Uddhav and initiate son, Aditya Thackeray into the party fold.Uddhav is currently the executive president of the Sena and will don the chair of party President.The wild life photographer started his official Shiv Sena journey in 2003 with the post of the party working president, this being the reason of the rift between Raj Thackeray and Shiv Sena. Political pundits are keeping a keen watch on the soft spoken Uddhav to see whether he can chart his own political identity in the midst of the firebrand way of politics endorsed by Shiv Sena.

A Few days ago, M. Karunanidhi, president of the Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam (DMK), anointed his third son M. K. Stalin as his successor. The succession battle of the party in power in Tamil Nadu brought out the family feud in public, where Karnunanidhi's older son, Union Minister Azhagiri has been blowing hot and cold over Karnunanidhi's decision to pick his younger brother over him.But it is public knowledge that Karnunanidhi had been grooming Stalin as his political heir for decades. In his last stint as
chief minister, he named Stalin as deputy chief minister in 2009. Stalin decided to follow in the political footsteps of his father when he was barely out of his teens, unlike Azhagiri who entered politics in the late 80's. Contrast this with Stalin who was spent a year in prison during the 1976 Emergency.